On Truth

Part of my passion in doing men’s work is to support men to move more into alignment with truth.

Truth is an essential element of being

because when we are speaking and moving in the world from a place of truth we are in integrity. When we come out of that alignment we move out of integrity and towards dis-integration. In truth we become stronger; out of it we weaken ourselves. Every time we say something that is not true, no matter how small, we weaken ourselves, physically, emotionally and energetically.

Our body knows truth and responds to it

no matter what our ego might like to say on that matter. When we hear truth it is as though something in our body and our whole system relaxes. When we speak truth it is as though our spine comes into alignment with itself and we stand a little taller, we feel ourselves a little more grounded. Don’t take my word for it – try it out. Practice saying something true to someone else and notice what happens in your body. Now try the opposite and see the impact it has on your body. It’s likely to be subtle, but if you tune in to your body, you will feel it. In lying we contract, we make ourselves smaller. In truth we expand.

We can all notice ways in which we aren’t completely honest; perhaps it’s those little white lies when you tell a friend that you don’t really want to meet up with that you’ve got another appointment. Or perhaps it’s bigger lies about cheating on your partner or being attracted to someone else. No matter the scale of it, this deviation from truth weakens us.

The practice is to shift what you say and how you act closer to truth. When you do that you’ll notice that things become uncomfortable. When your girlfriend says “does my bum look big in this?” she may not necessarily want to hear an honest answer. Find a way that honours truth but is also informed by Love. There’s no need to be cruel in the pursuit of truth.

Each truth telling strengthens us even if it can feel uncomfortable

It also strengthens our relationships. For example, when your partner asks you a question they want to hear truth even if their ego might rail against it. When we repeatedly speak truth we become trustable. The other person knows that they can rely on you to be honest, even if it’s unpalatable. That creates a feeling of safety and a deepening of trust in the relationship that opens both people to more love.

And as you move deeper towards truth you’ll start to notice something interesting happening. Truth starts to move from the level of the personal to the transpersonal. We move closer to universal truths. We still have our personal truths but we also begin to access deeper truths about the nature of the Life, about Love, about the universe, perhaps even about the nature of the divine. We begin to become aware of more spiritual truths and see life less as our personal journey and more as a deep spiritual experience.

In this sense truth is an evolutionary impulse

because it moves us from the personal to the spiritual, from the illusion of separation towards a union with Life itself and with all that is.